Mansfield Electric: Ready for Snowstorms

Gary Babin, director of the Mansfield Municipal Electric Department, said that winter storm preparation is the next step in the department’s plans.

"We feel like we have a pretty good handle on how to approach storms,” he said.

“The logistical preparation is the same… Tree trimming is all down.”

Babin said that personnel is the major difference between wind-based storms and snow storms. Snow storms, by nature, leave less light to work in and are more taxing on people doing repairs, and therefore take more time (both in work and in preparation).

“The amount of time we put in consecutively is pretty similiar, but some of the conditions are different,” he said. “The snow gives us a lot less daylight to work. That makes a big difference. As a practical matter, the cold weather slows down our ability to get stuff down.”

This year, snow storms are a big concern, since snowfall is predicted to be at higher levels than previous levels.

Babin said that safety is their primary concern when dealing with any storm.

Typically, we wont go out, depending on the severity of the storm,” he said. “We won’t send people out if we perceive there’s dangerous conditions [in Hurricane Sandy’s case] we did the repair work during the storm that we could, but we typically save the big stuff for when the storm ends to minimize the danger for our folks.”